...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Wednesday, May 12, 2004
      ( 9:24 AM )
 
Mama Gets Mail (Sigh)

Okay, I RARELY get emails regarding my blog...so imagine my surprise at the fact that I received more hate mail yesterday than the total amount of emails I've EVER received from blog readers.

You can stop now. I get it. You hate me because I'm an appeaser and I am a wimp and a traitor and a cold-blooded hater of the American Way. Whatever. My husband kindly offered that I suggest each and every one of you take a few moments to strip yourselves naked, run through the streets and request that onlookers abuse you in various ways and then see how you feel. However, being the sweet-hearted mama that I am, I'm not even going to dignify any of your emails with answers. There's an easy answer for you: just don't read my blog if you despise what I say so much.

Meanwhile, I have the right to say what I want (until Ashcroft shuts us all down), and I have the right to keep my own government accountable. Atrocities were committed in my name. I don't care how many (or how few) were committed or by whom. They were done. They were done by Americans and sanctioned by American Leadership. And the standard to which I hold my government (no matter how many times I know it fails) is one higher than the one being used by the Inhofe's of the world. Comparing what we have done to the worst examples of humanity in the world does not excuse what we have done. Just like the murder of young Nick Berg is inexcusable and there can be no justification for behavior like that. The standard must be humankindness - basic humanity. I am horrified by the terrorism that is being wreaked upon people like Nick Berg and the peoples of the world by those who would seek to use terror and murder to accomplish their ends. But no matter how much these people do horrible things, I cannot justify our own actions by comparing them to acts of terror committed by Al Qaeda and its like. We can't hold ourselves to their standards, or we will never EVER be moral leaders in this world (as we imagine we are).

So I WON'T justify what has happened to the Arabs by our hand, or stop critizing those who are "outraged at the outrage" because they think that the worst part of this is that the pictures got out, not that the atrocities were committed in the first place. That also means that I don't justify what was done to Mr. Berg or the inevitable acts of retribution that will follow.

But remember Ghandi? "An eye for an eye just makes the whole world blind." If we don't take the high road and STOP the tit for tat and do something to amend OUR part in this horrible cycle, then we will fast lose both our ability to criticize acts of terror against our own people as well as our ability to exercise any authority in the world.

So stop with the emails already.

Okay, Mama is done being pissed off at mean emailers -- now back to regular programming.



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